The US remembers their soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country in War on the last Monday of May every year – 30th May this year in 2011 and I happen to be at North Brunswick , New Jersey on this day . Whenever , we drive through Route 27 , we cannot help looking at the war cemeteries in the Brunswick area and for the soldier in me , it brings a lot of memories – of lost soldiers both known and unknown , both during war and during peace time . I could not help compare these with the large war cemeteries I visited in Riga , Latvia back in 1977 when I was stationed there for a training assignment .
Back home in India , we have large war cemeteries at many of our cantonments – I have seen some major cemeteries at Bangalore , Secunderabad and Kirkee myself and also heard about the great Kohima Epitaph : –
” When you Go Home , Tell them Of Us And Say , For your tomorrow , We gave Our Today ”
The famous poem ” Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead ” by Lord Tennyson is still etched in my memory from childhood . During my 30 years in the Army , I have seen or heard of death during the 1965 and 1971 war with Pakistan and there after during the IPKF Action in Sri Lanka . Even during peace time or rather during the ” no war- no peace ” scenario in the Kashmir sector , many soldiers and civilian workers die from mine accidents , avalanche or vehicle accidents while traveling through some of the deadliest terrains anywhere in the world . After I retired from the Army , the Kargil War brought to the world through the medium of Television the casualties we suffered almost in real time . We also have the India Gate in New Delhi with the names of war heroes who died in the First World War .
While the practice of observing the Memorial Day dates back to the Revolutionary Wars , its relevance is more in focus today when the US is still engaged in the so called “Global Policeman’s role ” in the Middle East . I read a great article by Mark Helprin , a senior fellow of the Claremont Institute in the WSJ [ Wall Street Journal ] dated 28th May 2011 titled – Memorial Day Beyond Stone and Steel – where his message on the Memorial Day is ” Our best tribute is probity and preparation , shared sacrifice , continuing resolve , and clarity in regard to how,where and when to go to war ” .
Mr Helprin’s message is universal and for the US it is a serious question of Warfare vs Welfare as scarce dollars badly needed for lifting the sagging economy out of the woods is needed to finance education, healthcare besides maintaining the highest readiness to ensure home land security in the wake of Bin Laden ‘s killing by US Seals inside Pakistan .